Another assassination in Pakistan related to blasphemy law

Another member of Pakistan't parliament has been shot dead, probably because he was opposed to the death sentence imposed on Asia Bibi last November.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Bibi case, she's a Christian woman from a largely Muslim rural village. She'd been working in the fields and went to fetch water for her co-workers. Some Muslim women refused to touch the water, saying it was unclean because Bibi (a Christian) had touched the vessel. An argument ensued in which Bibi is reported to have denigrated the Prophet. And that's what she's been sentenced to death for.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws are insane, but anyone who argues for changing them seems to be a target for assassination. This is the second assassination of a government minister arguing for moderation.

According to this report, very few politicians had the balls to attend Bhatti's funeral, and even fewer (ie. zero) are willing to condemn the blasphemy laws.

This article has some interesting things to say about the history of Pakistan's blasphemy laws and how they're used, including these examples of real cases that make your mind boggle:

"A 17-year-old schoolboy potentially faces the death penalty because he doodled supposedly blasphemous remarks on a corner of an examination paper. So does a doctor who threw into the dustbin the card of a pharmaceutical salesman whose first name was the same as that of the Prophet.

Just days after Mr Taseer’s murder, a special anti-terrorism court gave life sentences to a Muslim prayer leader and his son. Their crime, prosecutors said, had been to tear down a poster advertising a religious service that had been pasted on their shop front.

In some cases, the accused never made it to court: in 2009, a mob murdered a factory owner because he used an outdated calendar with verses from the Koran written on it to paper over his workplace desk."

Oh - and according to this piece, the politician who was assassinated for his criticism of the blasphemy laws a couple of months ago (Salman Taseer) interviewed Asia Bibi in prison and concluded "that the charge had been brought to hide the fact that she had been beaten and gang-raped for having argued with people of a higher caste."